The story of the Sun, New York, 1833-1918 / by Frank M. O'Brien.

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THE STORY OF "THE SUN"

always been, nor should we have known that he is conscious of the admiration he excites among his esteemed
contemporaries of the press had we not observed him in
the act of dilacerating a copy of the Graphic containing
an alleged portrait of him.
It was impossible not to sympathize with his evident
indignation. The Graphic's portrait did foul injustice
to his majestic and intellectual features. Besides, it
represented him as having a bandage over one eye, as
if he had been involved in controversy and had had his
eye mashed. Now, aside from the fact that he needs
both eyes to discharge his literary duties properly, he is
able to whip his weight in office cats, and his fine, large
eyes have never been shrouded in black, and we don't
believe they ever will be. He is a soldier as well as a
scholar.
We have received many requests to give a detailed
account of the personal habits and peculiarities of this
feline Aristarchus. Indeed, we have been requested to
prepare a full biographical sketch to appear in the next
edition of " Homes of American Authors." At some
future day we may satisfy public curiosity with the details of his literary methods. But genius such as his
defies analysis, and the privacy of a celebrity ought not
to be rudely invaded.
It is not out of place, however, to indicate a few
traits which illustrate his extraordinary faculty of literary decomposition, so to speak. His favorite food
is a tariff discussion. When a big speech, full of wind
and statistics, comes within his reach, he pounces upon
it immediately and digests the figures at his leisure.
During the discussion of the Morrison Bill he used to
feed steadily on tariff speeches for eight hours a day,
and yet his appetite remained unimpaired.
When a piece of stale news or a long-winded, prosy
article comes into the office, his remarkable sense of
smell instantly detects it, and it is impossible to keep
it from him. He always assists with great interest at
the opening of the office mail, and he files several hundred letters a day in his interior department. The
favorite diversion of the office-boys is to make him